Spain’s world number 16 Pablo Carreño Busta faces the Japanese challenge of Kei Nishikori in the first round of the 2021 Australian Open on Monday, February 8, with the match likely to begin at around 10 am local time (11 pm BST or 6 pm Eastern Time previous day). Get the live streaming options of this Pablo Carreño Busta v Kei Nishikori match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
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Pablo Carreño Busta v Kei Nishikori Head to Head
Their only previous match-up came at the 2019 Australian Open and that fourth round match turned out to be a five-set thriller. Nishikori came back from two sets down to win it in the fifth set tie-breaker, 10-8.
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Carreño Buta Shocked by Fognini
Carreño Busta is coming off featuring at the ATP Cup where he was played in place of the injured Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard won his first two singles matches, helping his country overcome Greece and Australia but a shock loss at the hands of Fabio Fognini led to his side’s ouster from the semifinals.
Fognini had gone into the match as a rank outsider, odds of 14/5 for a win, and managed to keep Carreño Busta at bay despite losing the second set.
That said, Carreño Busta has had an impressive run in the second half of the previous season, having done exceedingly well on both hard and clay court surfaces. He benefitted from the Novak Djokovic default in the US Open but nobody can deny his place in the semifinals there was well-earned.
This was followed by a quarterfinal march at the French Open, where he fought tooth and nail before going down to Djokovic.
Formerly a world number 10, Carreño Busta has now climbed up to 16th in the world, and will now hope to emulate his Australian Open showing from 2018 when he reached the semifinal of the tournament.
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Nishikori Hasn’t Won a Hard Court Match Since 2019
It was in the second round of the 2019 US Open that Nishikori won a match on hard courts last. He faced Alex De Minaur in the third round next, lost in four sets and opted out of the rest of the season and the start of the next season because of fitness woes and then Covid-19.
When he finally made a return to the circuit, Nishikori played only on clay, featuring in six matches across four tournaments. He won two and lost four, which included second round appearances at the Rome Masters and the French Open.
Starting out this season, Nishikori led Japan in the ATP Cup and while he still fought to remain in contention against Diego Schwartzman, he lost that encounter following a 6-2, 6-4 drubbing at the hands of Daniil Medvedev.
Can the former US Open finalist pull off a rabbit against Carreño Busta?
Carreño Busta v Nishikori Prediction and Tip
While Carreño Busta is 1/3 to win this, we think the match could be a lot closer than that and Nishikori can be expected to win at least a set.
Tip: Carreño Busta to win AND Both players to win a set: 6/4 (bet365)
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The 2021 Australian Open will be played from February 8 to 21. You can watch & bet on the these matches here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
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